Meet Africa Yoga Project studio Partner, YO BK owner, Kate Davies! She and her community have committed to supporting Africa Yoga Project this year through fundraisers, hosting the Handstands, Hugs, Happiness Tour, offering a workshop in Nairobi, and more! Read on to learn about how she turned her passion into a successful business that also gives back.
Kate is originally from New York, where YO BK is located, but she found yoga in Texas when she was in college. Hot yoga, specifically, became non-negotiable to her college life, and later, life in general. When she became a teacher, she returned to work with the woman who had first taught her yoga in Texas, who also walked her through the process of opening a studio.
When she moved back to New York, she opened YO BK in Williamsburg – a rare business at the time – now Williamsburg has a host of yoga centers to choose from. Kate recruited her friends to teach and run the studio and was open for business in 2015.
What started as a Bikram studio, now offers a variety of forms of fitness under one roof which Kate says is the key to their success. YO BK offers the discipline of Bikram, the challenging, community oriented and playful Baptiste Yoga and the higher cardio PIlates.
Kate describes her studio as, “really fun– the teachers are both passionate about their craft and approachable to students.” Plus they include a wide range of ages, and backgrounds (including many men who come to practice at the studio). At YO BK there is a Karma Yoga Program, where individuals can exchange volunteer hours for yoga classes making yoga accessible to all. Kate describes the students as interesting, respectful, smart and fun.
Kate’s commitment to service also goes beyond her local community. When she attended a Baptiste Level 2 training she met Paige Elenson, founder of Africa Yoga Project. Kate immediately wanted to get involved and it was the perfect time as the studio had been open for 3 years and she was expanding to a new location. “This was an opportunity to really connect to the “why” in a global way - making yoga more accessible, not just to people we know on a daily basis, but across the globe” she shared. Kate then designed a very unique way to fundraise for Africa Yoga Project that also solved a problem for her studio.
“Our classes sell out.” she shared. Students are able to sign up online, and every class, at least a few sign up and don’t show up, this presented a problem as it wasn’t fair to students on the waitlist. YO BK had a policy to charge cancellation fees, but they were getting a lot of push-back from the students. The ingenious solution she came up with was to donate the cancellation fee. “Now students know that if they miss the class for some reason, their money is getting donated to an amazing organization!” Kate explained.
That is an ongoing way that YO BK supports AYP, but they also stepped up last fall hosting two AYP Teachers on the bi-annual Handstands, Hugs and Happiness (HHH) Tour. “We make the cancellation donation very clear to our students, but hosting the HHH tour connected them to that on a whole new level when they met Millie and Eliza,” Kate added. YO BK are committed to raising $10,000 this year to support Africa Yoga Project. “It gives us a reason to do fun things, that are out of the box for our students,” Kate shared. For example, every first Friday is a rave class with power yoga, pilates, black lights, a disco ball and body painting!
As her company has grown to two locations and tripled the client base, Kate enjoys seeing different people every day. She reduced her teaching schedule from 16 - 14 classes per week to 5-6 and is now able to focus on her passion which is teacher development. In November, Kate is planning to bring some of those skills to Africa Yoga Project by leading a workshop in Kenya for the AYP Academy!
Since opening a yoga studio is a goal for many AYP teachers, I wanted to hear from a pro what it takes to find success as she has. “I would only recommend opening a yoga studio if you are willing to work really hard and you like people.” Kate told me. “There is a big service aspect to this job and you are always “on” whether you are taking a class, teaching or changing a roll of toilet paper.” She also added, “The only way to open a business is to open a business. And then you learn along the way.”
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While the hot pilates trend has taken off around the country, YO BK is the only New York City studio to offer it. Currently, eight classes are held weekly, and YO BK founder Kate Davies keeps adding more. “We’ve had yoga students who are not excited that it is not yoga all the time,” says Davies. “But, honestly, it’s so incredibly popular that we have to keep doing it.”
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We are excited to announce that Expertise has selected YO BK as one of the best yoga studios in Brooklyn.
Read MoreYO BK is excited to announce that starting May 3 we are offering a Hot Pilates class twice a week taught by our talented teachers Natalie and Katia.
Hot Pilates is a 60 minute challenging, full body, low impact, high intensity workout, using mat Pilates principles. The room is heated to 95 degrees. It is designed for all fitness levels. It helps tone and strengthen muscles without the pounding of a high impact workout.
Read MoreSouth Williamsburg just got a lot hotter. One hundred and four degrees with 40% humidity — to be precise as that’s the regulated temperature in YO BK, a Bikram yoga studio that recently opened on Broadway.
Traditionally, a Bikram studio offers 26 postures and two breathing exercises in a 90-minute structure. At YO BK, they do things a little differently.
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Good Sweat
By Lisa Elaine Held
Grab a natural deodorant, 2016 is shaping up to be a seriously sweaty year in New York City. Soon, Brooklyn cult favorite The DogPound will arrive in Manhattan, while Shadowbox will reverse-commute its way to Brooklyn. Tone House will move to a giant new space, and Barry’s Bootcamp will finally open uptown.
But hold up. Before their doors even open, we’ve got these 17 (yes, 17!) new spots for pull ups and pulsing. This crop of studios all opened (or will open) in December 2015 and January 2016 ALONE (with a few small exceptions on timeline), leaving Gotham dwellers with few reasons to reneg on your fitness resolutions.
Check out these 17 new workout spots made for the new year (and listed in alphabetical order) now. Scoff at the idea of January gym crowds later.
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17. Yo Bk
Bikram is the yoga style of choice (although they’re not purists—they offer both 60- and 90-minute classes) at this new hot studio in South Williamsburg, which has a loft feel and opened a little earlier this fall in the former Brooklyn Crew space.
By Natalie Rinn
Last Wednesday evening, I entered Williamsburg’s YO BK—the only Bikram yoga studio in North Brooklyn. Bikram is maybe better known as hot yoga, which means what it sounds like: yoga poses executed in a very hot space. But the original and eponymous practice was developed by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s, and is immutable: There are 26 poses, employed in a set order, and practiced at 105 degrees and 40 percent humidity in 90 minutes. At YO BK, opened by Kate Davies last October, the Bikram style is followed closely, except Davies also offers 60 minute classes, wherein select postures are struck once, rather than twice consecutively.
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News12 Brooklyn
Kate Davies, the owner of YO BK hot yoga studio, held a special Valentine's Day-inspired class.
The class encouraged couples to come and spend an hour together exercising.
Resident KC Schimt says she motivated her boyfriend to give yoga a second chance and that they have both been practicing together for a few...
Read MoreBy Craig Villani
Making the practice of hatha yoga accessible to six billion people worldwide is the primary philosophy underlying the development and growth of Bikram Yoga. Created by Yogi Raj Bikram Choudhury as a practical distillation of the classical eighty-four postures as set forth by oral transmission and recorded by the Vedic sage Patanjali, Bikram’s method of Hatha Yoga stands as a structured and foundational approach towards balancing the modern bodymind.
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Think yoga has nothing to offer men? Think again.
By Elise Diamantini
There’s a reason athletes like David Beckham, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Andy Murray moonlight as Bikram yogis. Murray, a pro-tennis player who’s currently ranked third in the world and is the reigning Olympic Singles Champion, credits Bikram Yoga for increasing his mental and physical endurance during matches. And Abdul-Jabbar has said that if it weren’t for Bikram Yoga, he could never have played NBA basketball for as long as he did with so few injuries.
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